News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-17
DOWN FOUR HUNDRED FEET.
Remarkable Escape OF Mrs. TownsIey Af-
ter Her Terrible Tumble.

Mrs. J. T. Townsley, the Chicago lady
who was an occupant of the stage coach
that toppled distance a four hundred
feet down Independence Pass, Col, last
month without sustaining as much as
scratch, arrived in Chicago Monday.
Mrs Townsley IS a progressing young
lady; about twenty-five years of age.
Describing the marvellous incident the
details of which have not before been
printed, she says:-
CAT daybreak on the morning OF
December IS, l was awakened at my
hotel in Leadville and informed that
the Aspen stage coach was waiting for
me. It was bitter cold and showing so
densely that the driver had to pilot me
to the coach. l had on \ heavy double.
fold velvet dress, ,-------s7IegiD D.o, :.
buffalo robe pinned oTe- nv shoulders,
my head covered by fur cap and my
face enveloped In shawl, allowing an
aperture for my eyes. Despite all these
projections was frightfully cold. The
coach was drawn by six horses and was
on wheels. We were preceded by the
Granite coach, which was on runners.
The road over Elk Mountain is natural
one that will admit of but single coach
passing. At the apex of the mountain
the Granite coach halted at station
blasted out of the rock and allowed us
to go ahead. Here a descent began.
| The road at this point runs at an incline
of forty five degrees. The driver put on
| the lock- chain on the wheels, thus virtu-
| ally converting them into runners. The
vehicle, despite these precautions and
its own weight went down at frightful
pace. We could barely keep our seats
| We balanced ourselves as best we could.
Running up from the truck and through
the box of the oach was perpendicll r
bar of steel called the king pin. clung
to this and managed to keep myself
right side up. Down the narrow path
in the side of the mou tain we went,
with the hores in mad gallop to keep
the coach from running them down.
1--WE were rounding Independence
Pass when suddenly the driver cried,
Jump, jump for your---He never
| finished the sentence. He had been
holding the coach as near the embank-
ment as the pass would permit.
Ahead of him he saw heavy bowlder
topple and fall down the mountain side
make the cry of warning. The obstruc-
tion was but twenty yasds ahead of him,
and it was beyond human power to stay
the impetus the coach had gotten coming
down the incline saw the driver leap.
Inside we all held on to the king pin.
Down we went, and in another instant
the forward wheels struck the rock.
The hind part of the coach was thrown
forward and outward and the king pin
snapped asunder like ;.reed. The box
with all in it went over the precipice on
its side, and through the window l fell
out. Less fortunate than myself, the
coach and my fellow tourists lodged in
a creviCe on the side OF the precipice,
some one hundred and eighty feet be
low the road. I was thrown out with
such force that I cIes~o2y this crag and
kept on and down the full, lour hundred
feet to the bed of the can n and into
if it were Water, Re'vti The Granite
coach just to the reaiAen rs, pulled into
motcn IN I4e tars ro'no not J and began to
climb down to where had lodged.
"Armcd with shovels they began to
dig me out, and, it is curious to relate,
the one flesh woundrI received was from
the blade of a shovel, which ploughed
up a furrow in my ankle when they
reached me. I was finally dug ou, un
conscious and to all appearance dead.
was left in the care of the toll keeper,
and the Granite coach passengers, while
the two drivers started for Aspen, thir-
teen miles distant, to summon surgical
aid One of the party returned at mid
night with doctor. In the meantime
I had revived and had, in company with
the toll keeper, gon down to he dinner
station, three miles below, and was ad-
ministering to the wounded and dying.
All the rest had sustained frightfuI in
iuries in their ia of $50 feet, while !,
falling over twice the distance came out
of the disaster sustaining no other in
iuries than a bruise inflicted by the
shovel y